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Build-A-Bear
January 11, 2008 | 8:10 PM PST
by: Matt Furtado
AMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
Have you ever wanted to create your own personalized Teddy Bear? Of course you have, so stop lying to yourself. Sweeping shopping malls by storm, the Build-A-Bear Workshop became an overnight phenomenon. Little kids, teenage girls, and so many others have indulged themselves in this latest craze because the Workshop lets you create your own Teddy Bear. Luckily, GameFactory is expanding on that premise and expanding the Build-A-Bear franchise into a full videogame. Build-A-Bear for the DS allows players to create their own personal Teddy Bear and lets them accessorize, customize, and play in several mini-games.
What's Hot
Build-A-Bear DS offers nearly everything that you can find in a real-life Build-A-Bear Workshop, but without being able to actually cuddle with your unique creation. The game starts off allowing the player to create their own unique and personalize friend. Not limiting itself to only Teddy Bears, the game lets you choose from Frogs, Monkeys, Dogs, Cats, and other animals, so you can find your favorite one. Once you create your personalized companion, it is time to accessorize it with over 100 outfits. This is one of the games strongest assets, the customization. Essentially, the game allows for limitless possibilities of outfits, accessories, and allowing you to truly make this your own personal friend.
Now in order to gain all of the available outfits and accessories within the game, you'll need to play the mini-games. At the start of the game, you'll be able to participate in numerous mini-games when you enter your personalized Cub Condo. The Condo features a Kitchen, Dressing Room, Garden, and an Attic. The Kitchen will let you cook treats for your stuffed friend and offers some interaction between you and your friend. The cooking interface is incredible simple and allows children of all ages to cook for their friend. Then there is the Dressing Room, which lets you dress your friend and even pose them for photographs. The photography session offers a lot of fun and even lets you save your photos into an album, which can later be shared with other friends who also own the game. Once you are done doing your little turn on the catwalk, it is time to bask in the sun out in the Garden. The Garden offers a chance to teach your friend how to dance by tracing over different line patterns with the DS stylus. Once you had your fill of dancing, you can also go on a swing and launch a soccer ball into different target zones for points. The targets range from a soccer goal, golf cup, field goal post, croquet stakes, and the traditional target board. The swinging mini-game is a lot of fun and kids will get a kick out of it for a while as they try to entertain the on looking Turtles, who will clap and cheer for you.
The Attic is the last available section within the Condo. Essentially, the Attic offers all the previous activities but in different variations. The cooking game from the Kitchen returns but lacks the automatic prompts, so this lets you become more creative in your recipes. Outside of more cooking, new mini-games include musical chairs and a game where players must catch honey, while swiping away bees with the stylus. Also available in the Attic is the multiplayer options. Multiplayer requires two copies of the game and lets players exchange clothing and pictures with each other. For young kids this will be one of the most exciting aspects of the game to receive a new outfit from their friend or photograph.
What's Not
While the game doesn't really have any particular weak points, the game will only appeal to an audience of children between the ages of 4-10. However, any older than that the game will either be seen as ridiculously easy, childish, or shallow. For little girls and for some little boys, this game will be tons of fun but for children over 10 years old, unless your girlfriend really likes Teddy Bears, they won't find much enjoyment out of it.
The mini-games, while fun for a while, can get tiring after continuous play. The Garden will probably be the least played section of the game because tracing over preset paths, even for kids, will become boring and tedious after numerous repetitions. Also hurting in the mini-game department is the lack of variety. Although it does introduce a couple new mini-games, the Attic only expands on the previously introduced games in the other sections of the Condo, with a few minor tweaks.
Final Word
For young children, this will be a whole lot of fun and will be greatly enjoyed. Letting kids create their own virtual Teddy Bear and customizing it to their own style will really bring a smile to a young child's face. With the addition of multiplayer sharing, kids will be able to share and feel the excitement of getting something new for their friend to use. If you have younger children in your family or know some, this game will bring them hours of fun and enjoyment. We highly recommend this game for parents with children between the ages of 4-10.
What the Game's About
Have you ever wanted to create your own personalized Teddy Bear? Of course you have, so stop lying to yourself. Sweeping shopping malls by storm, the Build-A-Bear Workshop became an overnight phenomenon. Little kids, teenage girls, and so many others have indulged themselves in this latest craze because the Workshop lets you create your own Teddy Bear. Luckily, GameFactory is expanding on that premise and expanding the Build-A-Bear franchise into a full videogame. Build-A-Bear for the DS allows players to create their own personal Teddy Bear and lets them accessorize, customize, and play in several mini-games.
What's Hot
Build-A-Bear DS offers nearly everything that you can find in a real-life Build-A-Bear Workshop, but without being able to actually cuddle with your unique creation. The game starts off allowing the player to create their own unique and personalize friend. Not limiting itself to only Teddy Bears, the game lets you choose from Frogs, Monkeys, Dogs, Cats, and other animals, so you can find your favorite one. Once you create your personalized companion, it is time to accessorize it with over 100 outfits. This is one of the games strongest assets, the customization. Essentially, the game allows for limitless possibilities of outfits, accessories, and allowing you to truly make this your own personal friend.
Now in order to gain all of the available outfits and accessories within the game, you'll need to play the mini-games. At the start of the game, you'll be able to participate in numerous mini-games when you enter your personalized Cub Condo. The Condo features a Kitchen, Dressing Room, Garden, and an Attic. The Kitchen will let you cook treats for your stuffed friend and offers some interaction between you and your friend. The cooking interface is incredible simple and allows children of all ages to cook for their friend. Then there is the Dressing Room, which lets you dress your friend and even pose them for photographs. The photography session offers a lot of fun and even lets you save your photos into an album, which can later be shared with other friends who also own the game. Once you are done doing your little turn on the catwalk, it is time to bask in the sun out in the Garden. The Garden offers a chance to teach your friend how to dance by tracing over different line patterns with the DS stylus. Once you had your fill of dancing, you can also go on a swing and launch a soccer ball into different target zones for points. The targets range from a soccer goal, golf cup, field goal post, croquet stakes, and the traditional target board. The swinging mini-game is a lot of fun and kids will get a kick out of it for a while as they try to entertain the on looking Turtles, who will clap and cheer for you.
The Attic is the last available section within the Condo. Essentially, the Attic offers all the previous activities but in different variations. The cooking game from the Kitchen returns but lacks the automatic prompts, so this lets you become more creative in your recipes. Outside of more cooking, new mini-games include musical chairs and a game where players must catch honey, while swiping away bees with the stylus. Also available in the Attic is the multiplayer options. Multiplayer requires two copies of the game and lets players exchange clothing and pictures with each other. For young kids this will be one of the most exciting aspects of the game to receive a new outfit from their friend or photograph.
What's Not
While the game doesn't really have any particular weak points, the game will only appeal to an audience of children between the ages of 4-10. However, any older than that the game will either be seen as ridiculously easy, childish, or shallow. For little girls and for some little boys, this game will be tons of fun but for children over 10 years old, unless your girlfriend really likes Teddy Bears, they won't find much enjoyment out of it.
The mini-games, while fun for a while, can get tiring after continuous play. The Garden will probably be the least played section of the game because tracing over preset paths, even for kids, will become boring and tedious after numerous repetitions. Also hurting in the mini-game department is the lack of variety. Although it does introduce a couple new mini-games, the Attic only expands on the previously introduced games in the other sections of the Condo, with a few minor tweaks.
Final Word
For young children, this will be a whole lot of fun and will be greatly enjoyed. Letting kids create their own virtual Teddy Bear and customizing it to their own style will really bring a smile to a young child's face. With the addition of multiplayer sharing, kids will be able to share and feel the excitement of getting something new for their friend to use. If you have younger children in your family or know some, this game will bring them hours of fun and enjoyment. We highly recommend this game for parents with children between the ages of 4-10.
February 8, 2010
